The #1 Reason we won a Franchise Contract.
We’ve all been in interviews. Whether it’s been to get a job or to win business — it’s for the same reason — to put food on the table every day.
The problem is that after every interview or presentation, we leave thinking about how we fucked up, if we made a great impression or who else they had to interview before we hear anything.
Then, the next few days feel like the grim reaper has his hands around your neck. It sucks.
And if you’re lucky enough to get the job or sign the contract then you feel that huge sense of relief.
But how many of you actually know why you got that contract or job? That’s something you really should find out. It can set you up for getting the next one, once you know the differentiator that makes you a head above the rest.
For us, it was something very simple… or at least we thought it was simple.
A month ago, we were one of the pack. While our potential customer was excited to meet us — they heard about the work we did for one of their friends — they were also happy to send out a request for proposals. A clear invitation that they were searching the market.
Like a guy who is crushing on a girl, it’s important to realize — you’re never alone. There’s always some other guy looking at the same crush wanting to get her attention. We were just a number fighting our way into another contract.
Once our day arrived, we sat down — no powerpoint, no piece of paper and no juggling monkey in a circus costume. We came in, sat down and asked one question — so, what’s your major challenge right now?
If you’re thinking that question was the one reason — nah, it wasn’t. What that question did was open the floor to a conversation, to listen to their problems, their challenges and then get a better idea about what they needed help with.
The ‘coup de gras’ of a meeting that lasted 3 hours was one very powerful thing — we provided a solution and roadmap to address their challenge.
Simply put, we were able to understand their problem, listen to the pain points they emphasized during the meeting, educate them on how to start addressing the problem in the room and then address their points one by one, with a realistic and quantifiable plan of action — a roadmap.
This roadmap allowed them to understand in the room what the goal or objective was, and how it was backtracked to each step along the way. It allowed them to understand how each action related to the other (theoretically) in a way that they could understand sans business speak and fancy lingo.
It enabled them as a customer to ask questions about things that linked directly to their business — without the guesswork of ‘we will reach out to your franchisees and then we’ll see.’
For any business, if you can understand their problem, propose solutions that can actually be implemented and which they can understand, you’ve made yourself instantly valuable. After all, that’s what you are trying to provide, right? Value.
